I want to use the Maya preview pipeline with my custom exporter(not the x-file exporter). So i need to get some info like the material(.fx file) or the texture that are applied to a mesh. So i had a look at the Source Code of the preview pipeline but and i noticed that all the important stuff(stuff that i need access to) is handled by a library called DXCC which is compiled to a .lib file (SKD/Utilities/DXCC/dxcc.lib i think). I looked at the X-Exporter as it already exports material information but again it all ended at this call:

hr= DXCCSaveScene(
		file, 
		D3DXF_FILEFORMAT_TEXT,//D3DXF_FILEFORMAT_BINARY,//
		AccessManager(), 
		AccessRoot(), 
        	NULL, 
		&ExportOpts);

which is defined in the .lib file. My question is: what exactly is DXCC? and is there a way to get the data i want(except for opening the x-file and getting the info from there)? thanks in advance regards, m4gnus

DXCC is the DX Content Creation library. The source is not available; it's a binary-only thing from Microsoft.

However, if you're doing an exporter inside Maya that is not a .X exporter, then you should be using the Maya API, and totally forget about the .X exporting API.

Quote:
However, if you're doing an exporter inside Maya that is not a .X exporter, then you should be using the Maya API, and totally forget about the .X exporting API.

i really liked to but i want to export material data with my meshes, that means basicly the following information:

-Which .fx-file to use?
-Which constants should be set to which value?(including textures)

and i don't know how to set those things w/o the Preview Pipeline.

So if that's not an option:
Can i automatically detect when the directX plug-in exports to a x-file, load it and get the material data from it?

Edit: How do other people handle that issue? I guess most people need to export material information with their meshes,as you want the artist to apply materials and not programmers, right?

Edit2: Btw does somebody have an idea what a DXCC_Fx_Handle could be? it is a hidden numeric attribute that is attached to the DirectXShader. Does this evebtually help me to get to my data?


regards,
m4gnus

[Edited by - m4gnus on September 10, 2006 6:26:36 AM]

*bump*

Ok i have acces to the DXCCHANDLE. Does that help me in any way? is there a documentation about DXCC somewhere?


regards,
m4gnus

You are going about this in the wrong way. You shouldn't somehow be trying to use the MS X-file exporter to hack up your own. Instead, look into the Maya documentation (specifically, how to retrieve the material).

i know how to retrieve the material but maya material don't have all the information i want to export.

I want to export a material chunk which gives me all informations that i need to construct a material when loading, namely the .fx-file ,all Textures and probably other parameters. But when i just apply a maya material to my mesh you can't enter that information anywhere. The DirectXShader does not suffer from that problem. It stores everything i want to export.

So if i don't use the DirectXShader (which would be the perfect solution) i'd need to build my own Dialog with some message boxes so that you can enter all the material data and i don't even know how to accomplish that.

So do you really recommend me learning how to create windows in maya to get this informations(this q isn't rhetorical)?

If there's really no way i'll do that but the one that later works with that exporter(me) will have to copy all the stuff from the directXShader into my own window which isn't very nice...


regards,
m4gnus

Quote:Original post by m4gnus
So if i don't use the DirectXShader (which would be the perfect solution) i'd need to build my own Dialog with some message boxes so that you can enter all the material data and i don't even know how to accomplish that.

I think a good solution would be to provide native support for the standard maya material. You could have an effect that emulates this material and then gather the constants manually. This way, even if the DXShader material isn't being used, you can still use the same material structure.

i also thought about that. So your idea is just to use the standard material check to what textures it's attributes are linked(mainly color) and export those.

*But*, i definetly don't want all meshes to use that material(obvious) so when do i decide with which material this mesh should be rendered?

regards,
m4gnus